25TH ANNIVERSARY: Dave Kerslake

We Catch Up With The Heroes Of 93

19 April 2018

swindontownfc.co.uk

Swindon Town will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of our historic promotion to the Premier League this weekend. As a result, we'll be catching up with some of the heroes from that famous day at Wembley and the 93 season...

The former right-back was actually sold to Leeds United before Town's triumph trip to Wembley on May 31st 1993, but the 51-year-old still has very fond memories of that historic season and playing under his idol in Glenn Hoddle.

"We were very fortunate to have Ossie Ardiles as manager beforehand and it was a major blow when he left the club, but when you see Glenn Hoddle walk into the dressing room then all the spirits are all of a sudden lifted immediately," Kerslake told swindontownfc.co.uk.

"On a personal note I was a Tottenham supporter and Glenn was my idol so working for him was something I was always going to cherish.

"He came in, he changed the system, he put himself in as a sweeper and you knew just by his playing ability that we were going to become a better passing team because of the range of passing that Glenn had.

"Glenn was coming towards the end of his playing career but he boosted us as a team for sure.

"You could see in pre-season that we were going to hurt teams with the ball, which we did throughout that season.

"We used to play from the back, we used to get the ball into Glenn and once that happened I remember just taking off and if the ball was there to be played he would put it on a sixpence, but we also had other people in the team that could do the same.

"Ross MacLaren was another outstanding passer of the ball, we had clever players like Martin Ling, John Moncur and Micky Hazard and right throughout the team we were always exciting going forward.

"Good players know how to play with good players and it was just a natural fit."

"I was absolutely gutted to be leaving a fantastic team behind and I thought we would get promoted that year and I would have liked to have been there at the very end."

Dave Kerslake

Kerslake admitted that it wasn't a shock when he found out he was being sold, although he also reveals that he was "gutted" to leave such a talented group of team-mates behind and miss out on the chance of being part of a historic day.

"At one point I was close to going to Newcastle and the club were not in a great place financially, so I think someone had to go and it was quite close to Deadline Day," he added.

"They received a bid from Leeds and Glenn wanted me to stay but Leeds were a huge club and it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down.

"I was absolutely gutted to be leaving a fantastic team behind, I thought we would get promoted that year and I would have liked to have been there at the very end.

"It wasn't to be unfortunately but I went to the game at Wembley, sat with the punters in the stand and cheered the team on.

"I was gobsmacked with the way it turned out and we were the better team if I can remember rightly, you think it is done and dusted at 3-0 but they scored three in rapid time and I was going crazy when Zippy (Paul Bodin) scored the penalty - that took some bottle from him to slot it in.

"They were fantastic scenes and they were well deserved.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be there this weekend with the players but the supporters at Swindon have always been magnificent and I hope this weekend is celebrated the way it should be."